page_title: Ice dance
section_title: Competition elements
hierarchical_section_title: Ice dance / Competition elements
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Лайла Фир и Льюис Гибсон на этапе Гран-при Skate America 2018
context_page_description: Ice dance is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. According to the International Skating Union, the governing body of figure skating, an ice dance team consists of one woman and one man.
  Ice dance, like pair skating, has its roots in the "combined skating" developed in the 19th century by skating clubs and organizations and in recreational social skating. Couples and friends would skate waltzes, marches, and other social dances. The first steps in ice dance were similar to those used in ballroom dancing. In the late 1800s, American Jackson Haines, known as "the Father of Figure Skating", brought his style of skating, which included waltz steps and social dances, to Europe. By the end of the 19th century, waltzing competitions became popular throughout the world. By the early 1900s, ice dance was popular around the world and was primarily a recreational sport, although during the 1920s, local clubs in Britain and the U.S. conducted informal dance contests. Recreational skating became more popular during the 1930s in England.
context_section_description: Ice dance has required elements that ice dancers must perform during a competition to make up a well-balanced skating program, including the dance lift, the dance spin, the step sequence, twizzles, and choreographic elements.  They must be performed in specific ways, as described in published communications by the ISU, unless otherwise specified.
  Dance lift: "a movement in which one of the partners is elevated with active and/or passive assistance of the other partner to any permitted height, sustained there and set down on the ice". The ISU permits any rotation, position, and changes of position during a dance lift.  Dance lifts are delineated from pair lifts to ensure that ice dance and pair skating remain separate disciplines.  After the judging system changed from the 6.0 system to the ISU Judging System, dance lifts became more "athletic, dramatic and exciting".
  Dance spin: "a spin skated by the Couple together in any hold".  There are two types of dance spins: the spin and the combination spin, which is multiple spins in succession.
  Step sequence: "a series of prescribed or un-prescribed steps, turns and movements".
  Twizzle: "a traveling turn on one foot with one or more rotations which is quickly rotated with a continuous (uninterrupted) action".
  Choreographic elements: "a listed or unlisted movement or series of movement(s) as specified".
caption: Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson perform a Curve dance lift.
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